May 15, 2009

The Fixer

WSJ article on match-fixing in the WTA. It's amazing how open and unabashed this Avilov dude is. About his creepyness.

Mr. Avilov, a math whiz and former
economics student with a penchant for fantasy computer games, says he
came of age when former Russian Federation president Boris Yeltsin
promoted the sport and many of his peers took up the game in the wake
of Anna Kournikova's success. He created a program that predicted
tennis results based on a player's style, current form and record on
each surface. After a brief stint freelancing for Betfair's Russian
marketing department and a failed attempt to create his own betting
exchange, Mr. Avilov says he focused on posting his tennis picks
online. In 2006 he says he hooked his first investor, who, as a test,
offered to pay him $15,000 if he could turn $50,000 into $100,000. Mr.
Avilov says he did so in five months.

Two bettors said they have paid Mr. Avilov
to place tennis bets for them and have been pleased with the returns,
although they didn't offer specifics or any proof of payment. Last
month, one investor -- an American from Houston -- flew in to meet Mr.
Avilov at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, S.C. The investor said
he'd come to pay for Mr. Avilov's hotel room and handed him $3,000 in
cash. Mr. Avilov placed online bets for the investor before heading to
the tournament each morning. While placing online bets is illegal under
U.S. law, the authorities rarely prosecute individual bettors.

...To gather intelligence, Mr. Avilov travels to three to six small
tournaments a year to watch lower-ranked players, chat up members of
their entourages and sleuth into their personal lives. "Just knowing a
player better helps," he says....

This winter, Mr. Avilov discovered Ms.
Bychkova, another Russian player coached by her mother, kept a diary on
Livejournal.com. He thought she might be interested in making some
extra money -- in one blog entry she waxed poetic about a Louis Vuitton
purse. In February, after registering for the site, he sent her a
match-fixing proposal through a private message.

Both Mr. Avilov and Ms. Bychkova say Ms.
Bychkova declined the proposal. She says she didn't tell anyone,
including tennis officials, because she thought it would "sound really
funny" to report someone she'd never met who contacted her through her
blog. "I don't want to fix matches and will never do it," says Ms.
Bychkova.

Mr. Avilov says he "definitely" intends to
contact other players through online social-networking sites and if the
opportunity presents itself, to ask them to fix matches. "My job is to
understand these girls and to think like them," he says.

Comments

The Fixer

WSJ article on match-fixing in the WTA. It's amazing how open and unabashed this Avilov dude is. About his creepyness.

Mr. Avilov, a math whiz and former
economics student with a penchant for fantasy computer games, says he
came of age when former Russian Federation president Boris Yeltsin
promoted the sport and many of his peers took up the game in the wake
of Anna Kournikova's success. He created a program that predicted
tennis results based on a player's style, current form and record on
each surface. After a brief stint freelancing for Betfair's Russian
marketing department and a failed attempt to create his own betting
exchange, Mr. Avilov says he focused on posting his tennis picks
online. In 2006 he says he hooked his first investor, who, as a test,
offered to pay him $15,000 if he could turn $50,000 into $100,000. Mr.
Avilov says he did so in five months.

Two bettors said they have paid Mr. Avilov
to place tennis bets for them and have been pleased with the returns,
although they didn't offer specifics or any proof of payment. Last
month, one investor -- an American from Houston -- flew in to meet Mr.
Avilov at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, S.C. The investor said
he'd come to pay for Mr. Avilov's hotel room and handed him $3,000 in
cash. Mr. Avilov placed online bets for the investor before heading to
the tournament each morning. While placing online bets is illegal under
U.S. law, the authorities rarely prosecute individual bettors.

...To gather intelligence, Mr. Avilov travels to three to six small
tournaments a year to watch lower-ranked players, chat up members of
their entourages and sleuth into their personal lives. "Just knowing a
player better helps," he says....

This winter, Mr. Avilov discovered Ms.
Bychkova, another Russian player coached by her mother, kept a diary on
Livejournal.com. He thought she might be interested in making some
extra money -- in one blog entry she waxed poetic about a Louis Vuitton
purse. In February, after registering for the site, he sent her a
match-fixing proposal through a private message.

Both Mr. Avilov and Ms. Bychkova say Ms.
Bychkova declined the proposal. She says she didn't tell anyone,
including tennis officials, because she thought it would "sound really
funny" to report someone she'd never met who contacted her through her
blog. "I don't want to fix matches and will never do it," says Ms.
Bychkova.

Mr. Avilov says he "definitely" intends to
contact other players through online social-networking sites and if the
opportunity presents itself, to ask them to fix matches. "My job is to
understand these girls and to think like them," he says.